Seasonal Help
by indianpipe
Summary: A Christmas Story in 3 chapters. Spencer must take " mandatory" vacation during the Christmas season and uses that time to make some extra money and new friends.


AN: Here is a little story for the Christmas Season, should be about three chapters. Don't own Criminal Minds and not making any money on my stories.

He stood, lanky and sullen, scanning a letter he had retrieved from his post office box this morning, it could have been there for days, but with the return address reading Bennington, he knew it was important and concerned his mother. He poured his first cup of coffee and took a seat at the BAU kitchen table.

The short missive explained that a substantial rate increase for keeping his mother at Bennington would go into effect January 1, 2013 to offset desperately needed capital improvements. He ran his hand through his hair and put his head down, ruminating on how little extra money he had every month after all of his and his mother's expenses were paid.

"My G for genius man, why so glum?" Garcia bustled in, neon green skirt with snowflakes embroidered at the edges, illuminating the room. Spencer Reid looked up from his problems and couldn't help but smile.

Garcia fussed with her herbal tea and hot water, her painted nails expertly ensnaring the teabag from the paper and performing the comely motions of steeping a cup of tea. Reid observed, comforted by Garcia's self assured motions as she chattered about the upcoming Christmas pary.

Reid unconsciously tilted his head to the side, " I won't be here for the Christmas Party Garcia, remember "mandatory" vacation." He made his fake quotation marks around mandatory but their was no bite to them.

Garcia stopped stirring her sugared tea just as she had heard Reid's voice grow dark, she turned and saw his hair hanging about his face and his bony shoulders sagging. " What could Hotch do? you had like 4 bajillion sick and vacation days." Garcia smiled wryly, thinking, only Reid would have such a surplus of vacation time that he would have to take off the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas. : I would think you would be in a great mood?" It was then she spied the letter on the side of his messenger bag. She motioned her eyes toward it. "Everything OK?"

Reid reached for the letter, not usually sharing to much information with the team about his family situation, true they all knew now, but the details, he thought were better kept private. "Oh, yes." He thought, he nonchalantly placed the letter back in his messenger bag, before making to leave.

Garcia stopped him, placed a hand on his arm. "Sweetie, you know you can talk to me." She looked up at him, searching his face for any sign of serious trouble.

He faltered, hesitating one second to long, he withdrew his arm and laughed nervously, undone by the weight of responsibility. " The monthly cost to keep my mom at Bennington is going up substantially...and honestly I'm stretched pretty thin right now." He ran his hand through his hair and looked down at his black converse.

"Oh dear." Garcia looked on, not quite sure what to say. She, probably more than anyone else on the team knew Reid's troubles with his mother but the financial aspect was never what she foucused on.

"We need retail therapy!" Garcia mobilized and raised her bright orange tea mug up in a show of solidarity.

"Garica, I think shopping would be counterproductive to finding extra money right now?" Reid gave a confused laugh.

"Nonsense, you need to think, and shopping, being around people and being in the Christmas spirit will get ideas flowing! Besides, you have a godson to shop for!"

"I do need to get something for Henry." Reid's expression lightened, thinking about Henry.

"See, it's working already." Garcia triumphantly nodded her head. Tomorrow is Saturday, we will meet at Macy's and take it from there.

Reid agreed, reluctantly, he did need a few gifts and getting out and clearing his head would do him good. "OK, but Garcia, please don't mention the financial stuff to the rest of the team."

"I am the soul of discretion M'lord" She gave a little salute, grabbed her tea and disappeared out the door.

Reid shook his head and the corners of his mouth raised in a smile.

Saturday morning had come quickly, Friday had been a blur of paperwork, goodbyes and promises to get toghether for Christmas. He found himself on the crowded subway back to his little apartment for 2 weeks of...well...worry...and nothing, sure he could read a few books, chase down some leads for speaking engagements, those always brought a little money, but they hardly offset the pain endured, being in the public eye was not his forte and he had spent a lifetime becoming acquainted with this part of his personality, it wasn't one of those flaws he could work on, it never got better, or easier. But, it was a crisp sunny December day, he was dressed nicely for his shopping excursion with Garcia, choosing something he knew she would like, his dark brown cords, grey and red sweater vest and his tan cord blazer, not sure why, he noted several times when he wore this outfit Garcia would compliment him profusely. He walked off the subway and went to his favorite coffee shop, got a venti Verona with 4 sugars and set off down the three blocks toward Macy's. He shouldered his messenger back, armed with some reading just in case Garcia decided she needed to try something on, he had been caught before in that situation and had chided himself for not having two books with him he could have finished.

He waited just inside the revolving door at ground level when he arrived, sipping his coffee and imagining the vortex calculation of revolutions per minute that door was turning on, it never let up, a credit to engineering and he supposed retail marketing, get the shoppers in as fast as possible.

"You look so festive with your red scarf. Aww! and you know how I love that outfit, it's so...so...old money genius." Garcia did not disappoint.

Reid laughed at her explanation, she was the only person he knew that could be simultaneously unintelligble and right on the mark.

"Let's go up to the 4th floor, menswear, I need something for tall, chocolat and handsome." Garcia pressed the elevator button and they entered.

Reid hated elevators, he fidgeted as the elevator became more and more crowded, the waft of a woman's strong perfume choked him, the doors closed and his stomach rolled, he should have eaten breakfast before he left.

Garcia looked up at him, "You OK there?"

"Yeah fine, just didn't eat anything yet." He clutched either end of his scarf and sighed quietly when the doors opened and everyone spilled out.

"Oh, I almost forgot the shoe dept. was up here too." Garcia threw a cheshire cat grin at Reid.

He arched his brow in return, knowing full well she had an intimate knowlege of all the floors of this establishment. "Why don't you go look at shoes for a while and I'll meet you in the men's department." He smiled kindly, as if this was part of her Christmas present.

"Thanks Doc, I won't be to long."

Reid headed in the direction of menswear, the aisles packed with shirts, pants, accessories he was meandering towards the middle of the deparment when he came upon a nice dark brown leather couch, it was part of what looked like a display, a vignette of maybe a man's library, some free standing bookshelves stood to one side, complete with a ladder to reach the high shelves, a leather wingback chair as companion to the sofa, a sepia colored globe set in a dark wood stand. There were books on botany and chemistry, antique magnifying glasses were artfully placed on a coffee table with a collection of butterfly cases. The little room was inviting and Reid couldn't help himself he sat down and opened one of the books, but he quickly realized the pages were empty, all for show. What a pity, he thought, a place like this would make shopping almost bearable.

He moved to the wingchair, not feeling to well from the elevator ride and decided to wait for Garcia here, he took out a book on advanced theorems in solid state geometry. Shortly after he settled in he heard a commotion on the other side of one of the book cases. It was two women talking, one getting rather loud.

"This idea of yours is not increasing sales, numbers have been down since we placed the installation, no one is buying the image, face it, academia doesn't sell, it's a bunch of old men, that's what people think of, we need to move product and if we can't capture the publics attention then it's a loss. I tried to tell you this but as usual you didn't listen and now look. I knew you weren't cut out for this, its business not romanticism that keeps your job." The voice was harsh and unyeilding and Reid couldn't help feel sorry for whoever was at the other end.

"Maybe with the fashion show we can bring some life to the concept...you always say its the last two weeks that make or break a Christmas campaign." a younger voice owned the bad side of this lecture Reid sensed. He was making to gather his things, thinking these two voices worked for the store and may not want some one lingering in their made up world, when the two voices came around the corner and stopped, staring at him.

The older woman, dark brown hair, cut to the shoulders in a knit dark red dress with high brown leather boots, bony hands with to many rings, turned her head side to side, seemingly considering his prescense. He, as per usual started to blush, and grabbed his messenger bag to put away his book, but then nervousness squeezed his already somewhat nauseaus stomach and he thought, what if they think I'm stealing one of their books?

"Uh, this is actually mine, you see...I ah...just wanted to rest a minute and well, you know my friend she...well she has a shoe thing and I...uh...see my book has words...well mostly numbers and well .. it's geometry. Did you know these books have nothing on the pages?" He ended a bit flustered, now having noticed the younger woman, she was very pretty, with long dark blond hair, lighter near her temples, and it was pulled back in a loose braid, she was smiling with an expression of encouragement on her face, almost as if to say, yes, it is alright, sit and be comfortable.

"He is perfect Jenny! Why didn't you tell me? Where did you find him?" The older woman questioned the younger woman.

"Oh, he isn't, wait what do you mean he's perfect?" Jenny looked confused, for that matter all three were confused, none of them knew what the other was thinking. Energy seemed to burst from that little fake library.

"As if you didn't know, letting me go on and on before when you knew we would turn the corner and there he would be, the face of our Christmas menswear campaign. He is so fresh, and he can act too, the blush, the rambling, the clothes, the hairstyle. I take back everything I said, you really do know what you're doing." She gave two quick kisses on the cheeks of the young woman called Jenny and turned to leave. "Bring me his contract at lunch and whatever else needs to be signed. I can't wait to get started." Her high heeled boots clicked on the polished white floor and she disappeared once again behind the bookshelves.

Spencer, dumbstruck by the situation, looked over to the young woman, he became concerned because she looked to be losing all color in her cheeks and he got up and went over to her. "Look, I uh just sat down to rest, I'm not anyone." As he finished declaring his nothingness he saw Jenny sway a bit, she had drew her hand over her stomach.

"Are you alright? Come here, sit down?" He guided her gently over to the leather couch, barely touching her elbow.

"I am so sorry, I should have said something but I wasn't quite sure what was happening, it was so strange to all of a sudden see you there when we turned the corner. Oh dear, I have to go tell Beverly your not a model, or an actor, she is going to explode." Jenny was speaking quietly, almost to herself, lost in the terrible situation that had been created. Her eyes were glistening with water and Spencer had no idea what to do, he was awful with these situations.

"I'm guessing you have no modeling experience?" She looked up to him and he couldn't help it, he laughed.

"Why is that so funny?" Jenny looked at this stranger, bewildered that the idea had never occurred to him.

"Well,...", Spencer's voice was broken wih laughter, mixed with a bitterness that struck Jenny. "for starter's I'm awkward, I'm accident prone, I ramble...do I really need to continue." Spencer looked away, trying not to show his deep embarassment in front of this very pretty woman.

"What? You are so handsome, angular yet soft, your sense of style is fresh in a world of skaters and rockers, you're a bit self concious but obviously very intelligent." Jenny placed a few stray hairs behind her ear that escaped her braid and looked sincerely up to Reid.

"You're darn right!" Reid looked up, not having noticed that Garcia had walked up. "What's up Doc?" Garcia looked to Reid.

"Oh I'm sorry, my name is Jenny Grant, I'm in the advertising and merchandising dept here in Macy's. Please accept my apology for troubling you. I'm sure you are trying to get some shopping done and I hope you find everything you need here at Macy's this season." Jenny had gone into professional mode, realizing this had all been surreal and weird and that she was no doubt making these poor people feel uncomfortable.

"Hold on? What is going on, I'm usually not in a position to say this but I have no idea what is going on here?" Garcia looked back and forth between Reid and Jenny Grant waiting for an explanation.

Reid cleared his throat.., " Garcia, Jenny...uh...Miss Grant and another employee just mistook me for ...", he sighed knowing Garcia was going to scream with some strange perverse delight over this..., "a model...sitting in their library here...hired to work for their Christmas menswear campaign." He looked to Jenny. " Do I have that about right?" Jenny nodded her head and smiled ruefully.

"Wait...momma has to sit...I can't...love this so much...can't breath." Garcia waved her hand in her face attempting to fan more oxygen into her nose, she took choppy steps in her new leapord skin shoes she had just bought and insisted on wearing and placing her old shoes in the box she was carrying.

Jenny grabbed her bag, looking concerned for Garcia. "Do you need some water?" She guided Garcia over to the couch Reid had guided her over to not more than 5 minutes ago.

Garcia composed herself, taking a deep breath. "Are you saying that you were just mistaken about him being a model or are you saying that you would hire him as a model?" She pushed her rhinestone cat glasses further up on her nose. Reid shifted weight from one foot to another, anxious over seeing Garcia going into questioning mode.

"Well, with the reaction that my Boss had over him I think we could make him an offer." Jenny stood and approached Reid. " I'm so sorry sir, but I didn't get your name."

"Spencer Reid." Reid left off the Doctor and Garcia noted that omission as being signifigant.

"Miss Grant, what kind of offer would you be prepared to make my friend?" Garcia sounded like a manager.

"Please call me Jenny. We need a model/actor here in the store, modeling the clothes in the collection, chatting with people and being here in the library. He would also need to participate in the fashion show we have at the end of this week and be on hand until Christmas Eve in the store, but I'm afraid your friend is not interested." Jenny finished with a smile to show Reid that she understood, he was a real academic and more than likely thought all this was probably shallow or ridiculous.

"So all he would need is commit to the next two weeks. Could we ask what the compensation would be?" Garcia took a pen from her black Coach bag.

"Garcia?" Reid was getting upset, she was sounding like she was going to accept this for him.

"Well, if you were interested I know they have offered others in similar situations 6,000 for the two weeks. It's in the budget and I think Beverly is so taken with she may go for that." Jenny spoke to Garcia, not sure what was happening.

"Reid it's perfect!" Garcia yelped.

"No, I can't do this...I'm no model, I can't walk in a fashion show, No." Reid shook his head that either one of them were considering this a possiblility.

"Oh Reid you could, and it's exactly what you need, the extra money would cover those costs you were worried about." Garcia raised her eyebrows in a secret understanding.

Jenny looked to Spencer..." I could have someone here help you with the fashion show, the rest would be fairly easy, we would want you to just be yourself."

"See Reid...you could do this." Garcia looked hopeful.

Reid ran his hand through his hair,...he knew this was the kind of money he needed to cover the extra expenses, more than likely for the whole year.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this but ...alright I'll do it." Reid sighed and fidgeted with his collar.

Jenny gave a little hop and clapped her hands and Garcia let out a whoop and then covered her mouth.

Jenny walked over to Reid and reached up to his collar, ..."that's bothering you...I have a great shirt in the collection that I think will fit you better." Reid swallowed and eyed Jenny fixing his collar.

"Let's go up to my office and we can call legal and have a contract drawn up."

...to be continued.


End file.
